Spanish football expert, Graham Hunter, has claimed that Real Madrid will make an audacious bid to sign Lionel Messi from rivals, Barcelona.

Madrid will be able to buy new players next summer, after their transfer ban was reduced on Tuesday, by the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS).

On the same day, Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu, made it clear they were willing to make Messi the best-paid footballer in the world.

But Hunter, writing in the Daily Record, says Madrid have tried to lure Messi from the Nou Camp since he was just 13.

He wrote: “Whether you consider that Florentino will succeed … or be laughed out of court, the Real Madrid President almost has no option but to try one last shot at tempting Messi to cross the divide.

“My firm opinion is that not only will Messi refuse to contemplate betraying a club about whom he’s always said “I owe everything to”, it’s still by far the most likely outcome that he commits to another four-year deal at the Camp Nou before heading back to play for Newells Old Boys.

“But it’ll be a shock if, over the coming months, it doesn’t emerge that Florentino’s has had one last roll of the Messi dice.”